I Haven't Got One Anymore
It was black. The whole room was utterly and completely black. She had never been the kind to want bright, girly colours, nor had she wanted a room that was so completely void of life. She knew she could open her blinds and the room would be converted into a grey, but then she would have to look upon the scene outside and that was much worse. So she sat, in this lifeless and dusty room, by the radiator and squeezed her knees close to her chest. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed something she hadn’t seen for a very long time. It was the picture that she had cherished since she was little. In the picture, her mum, dad, brother and herself were all smiling in the snow and it had never failed to bring back the joyous feelings of that day. But now it made her feel different. No longer did she feel happy and no longer did she remember the old days when her brother was there to protect her. She turned away, not wanting to feel anything. She pulled a chair from the other side of the room to the fireplace, adjust the direction of the TV so that it would face her and then turned it on. Unexpectedly, it blared out loudly and she heard a terrifying voice scream to her from down below to "turn that bloody TV off". She turned it down and listened intently. It told of the frightening scene unfolding outside and she dared not to roll up her blinds for she knew it would be right outside her window waiting for her. She decided that she would just stay there and wait to out. She knew it would have to go one day. There were more thuds downstairs and, at first, she thought he was coming for her so she turned the TV off and hid her head as best as she could behind her knees. But it was fine, Jess had escaped him this time, but she knew that if he wasn’t coming for her then he’d be after someone else. She waited for noise and, sure enough, repeated cries filled the house and seemed to shake it. Maybe it was him shaking the house instead. Every noise had grown to scare her. From the rattling of her blinds to the creak of her floorboards. But then she heard a different noise. It was one she hadn’t heard in a long time. It wasn’t the monotonous sound of inanimate objects hitting each other, nor was the piercing sound of cries for help that she was so used to. This was possibly the sweetest sound she had ever heard and the sweetness of it enraged her. She couldn’t understand how somebody could be so happy when she was so terribly miserable. In her plight, she hastily rolled up the blind to scowl upon who had ever made this noise, without thinking about the situation outside. And there it was. Light immediately flooded into her room and, in an instant, two tears splashed onto the floor. The rooms eeriness could no longer protect her and all her defences had been completely destroyed in that one stupid move. She began to sob uncontrollably as she looked upon the view. Snowflakes fell upon the grown so softly that it seemed as though angels were carefully guiding them down. The whole street had been encompassed by a heavenly, white blanket and Jess was almost blinded by its powerful brightness. Then, there in the middle of the street, she spotted the source of the sound. It was two young children, a girl and a boy, playing in the snow and making a creature that brought only more tears to her eyes. In the corner, she saw their mum and dad watching them carefully and smiling at them as the children made wonderful snow angels. Thud, thud, thud. He was coming. He was rushing up the stairs. He must be full of rage. He was outside her door. He had grasped her door handle and now he was… walking away. She froze, unable to move in fear that any noise may attract his foul attention. She just stood there shaking and sobbing quietly through the hands that covered her mouth. Bang! She stopped sobbing. This bang hadn’t come from behind her door. It was outside. As she turned back towards the window, she saw a huge snowball splattered upon her window. She searched frantically for the perpetrator of this act, but could not see them anywhere. Then bang! again. She searched more and more. The young family, who had been playing in the snow earlier, caught her attention and pointed towards a spot where a young man, not much older than Jess, stood. He smiled and she instantly recognised him. He beckoned to her to come outside, but he knew she wouldn’t need much persuading. Not when it was him. Cautiously, she threw on her warmest clothes and packed a small bag full of clothes and the picture she had cherished for so long. She tossed out the bag and then herself. She frantically ran into the arms of the boy and wouldn’t ever let him go.